Incredible photos of Prince's secret underground music vault released for the first time

The legendary musician died unexpectedly at the age of 57 in April 2016. Now the ongoing police investigation into his death has released a treasure trove of information

It’s just over two years since Prince Rodgers Nelson left our lives, but his music remains a fixture in our lives, with the time since his passing seeing the world appreciate his legacy of decades of incredible artistry.

However, while this has happened, the police investigation into his death has rumbled on but, seemingly, reached a conclusion last week as Carver County Attorney Mark Metz announced that no charges would be filed against any individuals.

The investigation concluded that Prince died from counterfeit Vicodin which contained the opioid painkiller fentanyl; they concluded that Prince did not know he’d taken fentanyl and were unable to determine who had supplied the pills.

Consequently, as there are no criminal charges being sought, the Sheriff’s Office has released the “vast majority” of data relating to the case - and anyone can download it.

There’s about 15Gb of data which you can download and peruse at your leisure here and, as you’d expect, there’s some fascinating stuff in there (as well as some rather macabre things - they include graphic images from the scene of death.

But the real treat? A series of images from inside the legendary vault at Paisley Park, which had been rumoured to exist for many years but which no one, outside of a select few, had ever seen, as well as amazing images of Prince’s collection of equipment, his studio, and his Paisley Park ‘club’.

In 2015, Prince’s former sound engineer Susan Rodgers told The Guardian: “When I left in 87, it was nearly full. Row after row of everything we’d done. I can’t imagine what they’ve done since then.”

Well, you can see for yourself below.

Only Prince himself knew the key code for the door, so it had to be drilled open, with the estate’s archivist apparently discovering enough unreleased music to release a new album “every year for the next century”.